BUS
In 2015, the Triangle’s regional bus authority merged with bus systems in Raleigh, Durham, and Cary to create GoTriangle. What this means for commuters is that bus passes for travel around the Triangle’s cities can be purchased through one source, either online at gotriangle.org or on any GoDurham, GoRaleigh, GoCary, or GoTriangle bus. (Chapel Hill Transit has not adopted the “Go” branding but is also the only member system that does not charge a fare.) Each of these transit systems has slightly different rates, but those interested in traveling through the Triangle will want a regional pass ($4.50/1 day, $16.50/7 days, $76.50/31 days).
GoTriangle offers express routes from Apex to Zebulon and every major town in between, with many of the most popular routes running through one of three major stations. GoRaleigh Station sits at Moore Square, in the heart of downtown Raleigh and a five-minute walk from the city’s new Union Station (more on that later). Durham Station is similarly close to downtown Durham, with American Tobacco Campus just half a mile southeast. The Regional Transit Center is both a hub for buses and a vital connector to RDU International Airport—take the GoTriangle #100 route from the RTC to either of the airport’s two terminals.
TRAIN
Raleigh Union Station opened in 2018, giving the Triangle a taste of what its future might look like when Wake County’s transit plan, which includes a thirty-seven-mile commuter rail system, comes to fruition.
For now, Amtrak holds the key to traveling the state by train. The service isn’t exactly practical everyday travel—there’s only one station each in Raleigh, Cary, and Durham, and buses have the edge in affordability and reliability—but the Piedmont, Silver Star, or Carolinian trains can provide a novel change of pace for weekend trips around the state.
CYCLING
Quality local shops, a thriving local community, and the simple addition of bike lanes on popular roadways mean that the Triangle’s cycling scene grows every day. Downtown areas are, predictably, the most popular spots for bikes, but leisure riders can check out the twenty-two-mile American Tobacco Trail that runs from western Wake County to downtown Durham, as well as the Raleigh’s Capital Area Greenway System, twenty-eight trails that comprise more than one hundred miles.
Bicycles are vehicles in the eyes of North Carolina law, meaning that cyclists can share the road except on highways. It also means that cyclists should follow some basic safety guidelines, most of them obvious:
- Stop at red lights
- Travel with traffic
- Signal before turning
- Have both front and rear lights at night
- Wear a helmet (not required but still smart!)
- And yes, you can get a DUI on a bicycle
ALTERNATIVE TRANSIT
Some less conventional forms of transportation have found their way onto the Triangle’s urban streets, offering everything from a convenient ride to work to a cartoonish jaunt through downtown.
Bird and Lime’s dockless electric scooters suddenly appeared last year, sparking a debate over whether the two-wheelers were the perfect solution to public transit’s so-called last-mile problem or a public safety nightmare. Durham mostly embraced them. It currently has about eight hundred scooters from the companies Bird, Lime, Gotcha, and Spin on its streets. To use a scooter, download the respective app and look for a nearby scooter. Then, scan the scooter’s QR code. Riders are charged $1 to start $0.15 for each mile. Once you’re finished, leave the scooter near the sidewalk but not blocking the public’s right-of-way. (Seriously, don’t be that guy.)
Raleigh, on the other hand, hasn’t been as amenable. After it enacted strict regulations on scooter companies, the scooters all but disappeared in the summer of 2019. While city officials say Gotcha is going to launch downtown, its scooters have yet to materialize as this magazine goes to press. In early October, Gotcha tweeted that it was experiencing “challenges with our technology” that were causing delays.
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Leaving walking out of this list seems like a substantial oversight.